‘The Scottish Government can’t get a foot in the door as far as EU negotiations go’

Anyway, there were two interesting things he told me. First of all he said that Scotland’s two governments, north and south of the Border are rivals and not partners, particularly over Brexit because: “The Scottish dimension does complicate things.

“The Scottish Government are not always arm in arm with the UK Government. Their view is that they want to emerge as an independent country and anything that takes us to to that is to be appreciated.”

Not much of an insight there really.

But, perhaps more interestingly, he added: “Brexit is not going to be an easy outcome for either side in the short term. It can’t be.”

Now, nobody who has the slightest interest in politics could be surprised that the SNP is less than enthusiastic about Brexit.

They campaigned against it, they still oppose it and it is blindingly obvious that Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers have no interest in seeing Brexit succeed.

The First Minister used the Brexit vote as an excuse to relaunch the independence referendum campaign after Scotland’s overwhelming decision to stay in Europe. That all went base over apex because of Theresa May’s decision to hold a snap general election.

The timing was dire. When the election was called Brexit was still far off but the possible disruption of IndyRef2 was all too apparent to the voters who punished the SNP accordingly.

The clear possibility of chaos, disruption and suffering caused by the totally self-inflicted wound of Brexit is a fantastic lifebelt which has been flung to the SNP so of course that’s what they want.

But it’s not within their gift. The Scottish Government can’t get a foot in the door as far as EU negotiations go.

TEACHER'S POET

'suffered enough'

There has been no meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee, which brings Westminster and the devolved governments together, since January. The SNP can’t even talk to the UK Government about Brexit, never mind anybody in the EU.

There is precisely the square root of damn all that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP could do to foul up Brexit — but they don’t need to. It’s being expertly screwed up for them.

As my minister chum said: “Brexit isn’t going to be an easy outcome for anybody, but we’re still doing it.

“They all know it’s a disaster. They all know it’s going to hurt — and we’re doing it anyway.” Just look at what happened this week alone.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has ordered a report on the impact of migration on the UK economy so she can use it to draw up some kind of migration policy — but it won’t be ready until six months before we are due to leave the EU.

Now you might very well ask yourself why nobody thought about this stuff before.

Maybe before we had this vote or maybe immediately after the vote or maybe at any time in the 13 months since we had the vote.

Doing this work now looks, well, forgive me, just a tiny bit less than competent. Maybe even downright inept.

If the report comes out six months before we go, Brexit will already be over. It is laughable for ministers to think they can come up with negotiating demands until five minutes to midnight on the night before Brexit takes effect.

It has to be sorted well in advance because it’s not just for the UK to decide. The EU Commission, the EU Parliament and 27 other separate national parliaments must all approve the deal or there is no deal.

Also this week we learned from Chancellor Philip Hammond that we would have a transition period on free movement of people for years and years after Brexit.

But, yesterday, Trade Secretary Liam Fox said he was “not party to any Cabinet discussions” on free movement.

He said: “I’m very happy to discuss whatever transitional arrangements we might want but that has to be agreed by the Cabinet. It can’t just be made by an individual or any group within Cabinet.”

They don’t have a policy. More than a year since the vote, these people are still making it up as they go along. Still.

As the Irish EU Commissioner Phil Hogan said: “It beggars belief to see the type of inconsistency and lack of co-ordination that we see at the moment from the UK side,”

And, on top of all that they know — they KNOW — it’s going to hurt.

Nobody made David Cameron hold the Brexit vote. He did it because he thought it would do him good within his own party. People who lied about what Brexit would mean have been rewarded with places at the heart of government. Every day it is clearer that nobody has a clue what they are doing.

And yet they are surprised that the SNP is waiting around eagerly for it all to go wrong.

THOUGH Holyrood is shut for the summer, things trundle on, including one particularly interesting petition.
James Cassidy of Edinburgh wants to end the system that lets candidates stand as constituency members AND have a place on the top up list.
Nicola Sturgeon used to be a list MSP and being rejected by the voters of Govan didn’t stop her from getting comfy at Holyrood. The same is true for Ruth Davidson, Willie Rennie while Kezia Dugdale and Patrick Harvey have never won a constituency. Ken Mackintosh lost his East Renfrewshire seat to Jackson Carlaw — but now he’s Presiding Officer.
Mr Cassidy says: “Politicians, if they play the game right, can put themselves in a position where they can never really be removed from Holyrood.”
As I’ve always said, if voting made any difference, you wouldn’t be allowed to.

YOU probably didn’t notice the biggest story of the week when it broke earlier.
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham has launched a ten-year plan to try to rebuild the population of pollinating insects.
So what? Big deal?
Damn right it’s a big deal. Since 1980 the number of bees and butterflies has dropped by 50 per cent. Not even forty years and the engine room of the environment has lost half its workforce. Just consider what that means. Okay, we don’t need bees for grass or cereal crops but just about everything else depends on pollinators.
No pollination means no seeds and no seeds means extinction for fruit and flowers, for the birds which depend on them for food and, eventually, for us.
Donald Trump is in the White House with his finger on the nuclear button as Kim Jong-un sits playing with his missiles but that’s not nearly as scary as the death of the bees.